In preparation of the launch of IBM’s latest version of its flagship database targeting e-businesses and ASPs, the company is offering ASPs new licensing programs.
IBM plans to ship DB2 Universal Database Version 7 sometime within the next three months. IBM will introduce new licensing programs for ASPs to help support this launch, and the company is investing $1 billion to further enhance its data management team.
DB2 Universal Database Version 7 makes it simpler for dotcoms and large corporations conducting B2B on the Web to gain competitive insight about their customers, slash application deployment time nearly in half and perform high-speed Internet searches more than 10 times faster than traditional relational database search engines.
According to Janet Perna, general manager for IBM Data Management Solutions, the new DB2 will offer tight integration with Java and Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 version will offer tight links to Microsoft’s Active Directory even though DB2 will ship across multiple operating systems.
Of interest to ASPs, IBM (IBM) also created a new pricing model that will offerDB2 to ASPs for free. IBM will receive a percentage of the revenue ASPs receive from their customers once the solution is implemented, based on a “per subscriber” or “per transaction” basis.
IBM told ASP-News that it is looking to help ASPs jump-start their businesses, which is the reasoning behind the free model. Once the software is installed into the ASP’s customer database, a charge will incur from IBM based on usage. Bottomline-if the ASP doesn’t install the software, there is no charge involved.
The “per subscriber” or “per transaction” fee will be determined on a case by case basis, depending on how much software the ASP will be using. ASP-News learned it could cost an average of 25 cents per transaction.
The company stated that no techniques have been implemented to police the pay-as-you-go model. IBM said it will rely on the trust factor, but at the same time will remain careful about who the software is given away to.
